The Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) is an annual

literary contest A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. M ...

intended to bring greater visibility to

self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pr ...

English-language

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama ...

authors. The SPFBO has been operated since 2015 by the author Mark Lawrence. He distributes about 300 novels submitted by the authors to ten fantasy

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

gers to review. Each blogger selects a finalist, which is then reviewed by all ten bloggers. The winner is the finalist with the highest average review score. The contest has been credited with making high-quality self-published novels discoverable, and with boosting the careers of the winners. Though not the primary purpose, it has helped several authors find publishing contracts. These include Jonathan French, the 2016 winner, and

Josiah Bancroft Josiah Bancroft is a writer of fantasy, known for his initially self-published debut novel ''Senlin Ascends'' (2013). Works ''Senlin Ascends'' and its sequels, the ''Books of Babel'' series, deal with the adventures of the schoolteacher Thomas Sen ...

, whose book ''Senlin Ascends'', despite losing out before the final stage of the same competition, was reviewed so positively that it gained widespread attention in the fantasy community.

Winners

Finalists

SPFBO 1 (2015)

SPFBO 2 (2016)

SPFBO 3 (2017)

SPFBO 4 (2018)

SPFBO 5 (2019)

SPFBO 6 (2020)

SPFBO 7 (2021)

SPFBO 8 (2022)

External links

SFPBO homepage

References

{{reflist, 30em Fantasy awards 2015 establishments English-language literary awards